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"Thank you, Young Master." Dong Xiaowan smiled slightly, but inside she was like a bed of blooming flowers. It made the surrounding scenery lose its color.

Yi Yun placed the teacup down and said, "I'll be going to the ancient ruin today to take a look."

Over the past few days, Dong Xiaowan had described to Yi Yun the internals of the ancient ruin in great detail. And after a few days of recuperation, Yi Yun was back at peak condition.

The ancient ruin was fraught with danger at every turn. Everything had to be done carefully. In his present state, he was the best equipped to head for the ruin.

"Young Master, do you really not need me to go with you?" Dong Xiaowan asked worriedly.

Beside her, Ru'er bit her lip and did not say a word. Her strength was mediocre, so she would be useless in the ruin. She was better off staying behind to take care of Ling Xie'er.

"There's no need. You have yet to fully recover. You might actually relapse if you go." Yi Yun said as he stood up. "I'll leave Xie'er in your hands. I will come back as soon as possible."

The moment his voice faded, Yi Yun's body transformed into a stream of light. In a blink of an eye, he vanished from the array barrier around the mountain valley.

He had strengthened the array over the past few days. Only with that could he be at ease leaving Ling Xie'er and the two girls behind.

The ancient ruin was more than fifty thousand kilometers from the mountain valley, but ever since Yi Yun gained comprehension of profound spatial dimension laws, his speed had increased tremendously.

A typical Dao Palace realm warrior would spend two days traversing the distance, but Yi Yun could do it in half a day.

...

"Sigh, guarding this area is truly scary."

In a black mountain range that stretched for thousands of kilometers but was void of any vegetation, a few warriors guarded the area around a teleportation array.

These warriors were dressed in Jadewave Sect uniforms. After the Jadewave Sect ordered the place to be sealed, they were the only ones left to guard the teleportation array and prevent others from entering.

However, the place effused a cadaveric air and carried terrifying curses within, so these warriors stood guard with trepidatious hearts.

"There probably isn't anyone stupid enough to trespass this area. There are evil entities inside..." Another warrior responded.

However, before he could finish his sentence, he felt a sudden change in the surrounding Yuan Qi. It was as if an icy gale was blowing past them, leaving him chattering from the cold.

"Oh? Did you feel that?"

"I... I felt it..."

The pale-faced warriors exchanged looks.

"Let's not talk about this."

"Cut it out. Cut it out..."

Yi Yun wasn't aware that the Yuan Qi fluctuations he stirred when he passed the warriors had generated odd thoughts in them. He landed somewhere along the mountainside.

The Jadewave Sect's World Stone mine was located in the mountain range, but the valley in it was as broad as an empty plain. The mountain peaks on both sides of the valley resembled tall black towers that seemed to envelop the area.

The mine had already been sealed off by the Jadewave Sect, but with Dong Xiaowan's instructions, Yi Yun knew how to gain entry.

He conjured a few hand seals and immediately, the mine that had been calm stirred and revealed an entrance. Yi Yun looked at the entrance before entering it without any hesitation.

After Yi Yun entered, the entrance quaked before vanishing.

And all of this was not detected by the warriors on guard.

After searching around the mine for a while, Yi Yun finally found the spot where the ancient ruin was according to Dong Xiaowan's descriptions. Upon entering the ancient ruin, Yi Yun immediately felt chaotic Yuan Qi as well as an intense chill.

The temperature was so low that saying water droplets would immediately freeze was not enough. However, there was no ice on the ground. There was only gray gravel. There was also not a single hint of vegetation as far as the eyes could see.

It was bleakly cold, silent, and dark. It was like an abandoned world, isolated from the sunlight. There was no life in this place, only ice-cold silence.

Yi Yun kept a close eye on his surroundings. At the same time, he circulated his Yuan Qi to withstand the cold. When Yi Yun proceeded a distance forward, he saw a scene that awed him.

In front of him was a gigantic city built on a plain.

Everything was extremely massive, there were towering buildings and wide paths.

Yi Yun stood in front of an abandoned house and felt that he was only a minute fraction of the height of the main door. This ordinary house door looked like a towering city door.

In this city, Yi Yun felt like he had shrunk to the size of an ant.

Compared to such a city, the black mountain peaks on the side really resembled city walls. Yi Yun even had a feeling that they weren"t actually part of the mountain range, but of weathered city walls.

Weathered city walls that turned into a mountain range... Such a magnificent city was truly unheard of. If that was the case, the mountain range that stretched for thousands of kilometers would be the circumference of the ancient ruin.

Human history repeats itself, but the world changes all the time. Countless cities had been destroyed or abandoned through the passage of endless time. It was common to chance across such ancient ruins, but these extremely massive buildings did not seem like they were built for humans.

Who could they be for?

Yi Yun recalled the records he had seen in canon. In ancient legends, there were races with gargantuan bodies. Could the city have been constructed by them?

Ignoring everything else, Yi Yun had encountered a bronze giant before. It could flatten mountains with a footstep. Although the city in front of him was humongous, it would only be a toy in front of the bronze giant that towered into the heavens.

The puzzled Yi Yun continued walking through the city.

There was no indication how long the city had been left desolate. The entire city was empty as the sound of Yi Yun's footsteps echoed. It felt like he had transmigrated through space and time.

He had the Purple Crystal's energy vision activated constantly as he observed everything around him. After walking for nearly an hour, Yi Yun's heart suddenly shook, and he turned extremely vigilant!

He saw something that made him shudder. In the energy vision, everything had turned into monotonous lines. However, hidden beneath these lines, Yi Yun saw rows of bright dots. But on closer inspection, Yi Yun realized that these bright dots were eyes.

Every pair of eyes belonged to a distorted human face. The eyes were densely packed and were all lurking beneath the ground!

This is...

Yi Yun instantly drew his pure Yang broken sword. The distorted human faces were identical to the one Yi Yun had seen in Dong Xiaowan's body!

Without a doubt, Dong Xiaowan had been possessed by one of these.

Although Yi Yun had the Purple Crystal which could suppress these evil entities, there were thousands, if not tens of thousands, of these evil entities lurking underground. If they all chose to rush him at once, wouldn't he be doomed no matter how strong he was?

He reluctantly retreated, but only made it a few steps before he stopped. He realized that the faces hidden beneath the ground did not move. Some of the human faces had hideous expressions, but others were in a state of deep sleep. Their faces were grayish-white and their eyes were tightly shut. Some even had faces covered in wrinkles like a dried corpse.

Yi Yun pondered for a moment, then held his breath as he tried to close the distance. He approached from the sky gradually.

He circled a gigantic building and finally saw the area where these evil entities lurked.

It was a cemetery that stretched out to the horizon!

There were gray rocks that were the remains of crumbled tombstones. There were shattered slabs scattered everywhere, with some half buried. The text on the tombstones had been worn away, making them impossible to date.

The giant, dilapidated city had an abandoned cemetery with evil entities lurking within the ancient graves...

Yi Yun found the whole situation suspicious.

What had happened here?

At that moment, Yi Yun was flying a thousand meters above the cemetery. Although he wanted to fully probe the area, he did not dare descend. It was too great a risk. If the evil entities were to collectively awaken and charge at him together, he might be swallowed whole, not even leaving a drop of blood.

But if he were to leave, then what was the point of coming to the ruin?

Yi Yun was in a dilemma.

He knew very clearly that the smart choice was to leave. At that point in time, there was nothing to gain from being here, just as Dong Xiaowan said. There was only strangeness and curses. However, Yi Yun had a nagging feeling that he would miss out on something big if he left now.

Yi Yun hovered in mid-air for a very long period of time before he began to slowly descend. Yi Yun descended a foot at a time in an extremely careful manner. He took a total of fifteen minutes to make it halfway to the ground.

However, at that moment, Yi Yun witnessed something that alarmed him.

He saw a white-dressed female standing calmly in front of a rundown tomb in the endless gray-colored cemetery.

She looked like she was in her twenties and did not exude the aura of an expert. In that respect, she was like an ordinary mortal girl, but her disposition was like that of an empyrean from the ninth heaven. She was like an orchid blooming on an iceberg, aloof and noble. It prevented anyone from having any thoughts of desecrating her.

Who is she!?

Yi Yun felt an upheaval of emotions. He had been carefully observing the entire cemetery to prevent the evil entities from sneaking up on him. However, he had not seen this woman.

The woman seemed to appear out of nowhere, but her calm and peaceful demeanor made it seem like she had been standing there all along, experiencing great periods of time.

Was she a ghost?

Yi Yun stopped descending and watched the woman intently. He circulated every bit of his Yuan Qi. For a white-dressed female to suddenly appear in the middle of a cemetery filled with evil entities, it would make anyone have trouble remaining calm.

However, the woman's disposition was otherworldly, like a divine goddess from heaven. It made it seem like she had nothing to do with the abnormality of the land.

"You can come down. The evil entities here will not harm you. I will not harm you either."

The woman spoke softly. Her voice was ethereal and pleasant. It was like an immortal tune coming from the heavens, but she was using an ancient language that Yi Yun had never heard. More strangely, he was able to understand everything she said. It was as though the meaning was communicated to him instantly when her voice reached his mind.

Yi Yun hesitated for a moment. Having encountered such a strange situation, any rational person would not easily believe the woman's words. However, Yi Yun's instincts told him that the woman wasn't an evil entity. It was indicated both by her aura and the projection seen through the Purple Crystal's energy vision.

Yi Yun took a deep breath as he clenched his pure Yang broken sword and landed about hundred feet away from the white-dressed female.

The woman had a faint luster exuding from her body. It seemed like she had condensed the essence of the starlight and moonlight. Her dress was as white as snow, and it contrasted heavily with the gray world around her. Thus, although she was standing in the middle of an abandoned cemetery, Yi Yun felt that she stood independent from the world, as if she was in an alternate space-time dimension.

The woman glanced at Yi Yun with eyes that beamed with infinite divine light. The instant she saw Yi Yun, she revealed a puzzled look. At the same time, a clear and cold voice entered Yi Yun's ears. "Your aura... seems familiar."

Familiar?

Yi Yun was certain that he did not know the mysterious woman.

The woman quickly calmed once more as she lightly said, "It's just a hint of something familiar. But you shouldn't know her so do not worry about it."

The woman's words left Yi Yun befuddled from beginning to end.

However, he believed that the cultivation level of the woman in front of him was unfathomable. There was no way her sense of familiarity with him was a mistake. Where could that sense of familiarity stem from?

"Senior, I wonder who..." Yi Yun cupped his hands and asked. The woman seemed like she could return to wherever she came from with the wind at any time. She did not seem like she belonged to this world. Yi Yun didn't even know if she was human.

"There is no need for you to know my name..." The white-dressed female shook her head. "You are around sixty years of age, yet you can sense the secrets hidden beneath this cemetery. I'm curious as to how."

The moment the white-dressed female spoke, Yi Yun's heart clammed up. The woman had managed to accurately determine his age with one look and asked a question about something he kept secret. Yi Yun felt like this woman could see right through him.

"There is no need for you to feel nervous. I have no ill intentions toward you. It's just that you seem to have had some unique experiences. As a product of them, and your hard work, your strength seems to far exceed other warriors at your level. You remind me of someone..."

"Senior, who do you speak of?" Yi Yun held his breath. The woman's sharp intuition left him uneasy, as if she could see through everything.

How strong was such a person?

Yi Yun suddenly realized that there were too many experts that he did not know of in this world. Their realms far exceeded his imagination.

Upon hearing Yi Yun's inquiry, the white-dressed female sighed slightly. Her eyes seemed to be looking very far away as if she was lost in a long thought. "Someone I know. You resemble him a lot..."

Him?

Yi Yun frowned slightly. The white-dressed female's words were filled with mystery. At first, she referred to a 'her' and now it was 'him'. Yi Yun was completely at a loss as to who the white-dressed female might be referring to.

"My name is Divine Dream."

The white-dressed female suddenly gave her name before nonchalantly turning around.

Yi Yun was taken aback momentarily. He originally thought that she would not tell him her name, but she had so suddenly given it to him.

Divine Dream?

In the canonical books that he had read, he did not recall such a name.

"Senior, please wait." Yi Yun followed the white-dressed female."Senior, can you tell me what this place is? And what is buried here? To be honest, a friend of mine has been possessed by one of these ghost faces. Now, no matter what she does, she can't make any progress in her cultivation. Furthermore, the ghost was even eating away at her vitality. I want to know how the curse can be resolved."